State Briefs 7/28/09

Tuesday

PEORIA — A man who reportedly went to a South Peoria home to buy drugs wound up being shot instead early Tuesday morning.

Jerome Gladney, 46, of Peoria drove himself to Methodist Medical Center with gunshot wounds to the arm and leg.

Gladney told police he drove another man to a house about 12:30 a.m. The passenger went into the home, but instead of returning with the drugs he came out with a handgun and demanded Gladney’s money, according to a police report.

When Gladney refused to hand over the cash, the gunman began firing, he said.

Methodist did not disclose information on Gladney’s condition, but police said the injuries did not appear to be life-threatening. Police said they did not have a suspect in custody.

Peoria Journal Star

Four missing boaters found safe

PETERSBURG – Four boaters who were not heard from overnight, prompting a search of the Sangamon River by police and trained rescuers, were found Monday afternoon safe and fishing near Petersburg.

Authorities began a search about 10 a.m. at the boat dock at Riverside Park. Springfield Park District police Sgt. Jeff Graham said family members notified authorities saying the men had gone out on the river Sunday night and were not heard from by 7:30 Monday morning, causing the relatives to become concerned.

Local police and members of the Sangamon County Rescue Squad converged at the park. Police also notified the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Illinois State Police for help. Meanwhile, the park entrance off Peoria Road was closed during the search.

Sgt. Jeff Graham of the Springfield Park District police said the boaters were local and at least two of them had been going out on the river for years and were familiar with it. He said rescuers had no evidence the men were in trouble but were looking for them as a precaution in case they needed assistance.

The men were found about 1 p.m. in an area of the river off Illinois 29 not far from Petersburg. They were fishing and had no clue searchers had been looking for them.

State Journal-Register

Race riot sculpture to be unveiled

SPRINGFIELD – A 10-foot-tall bronze sculpture commemorating the Springfield Race Riot of 1908 will be unveiled in Union Square Park at a ceremony at 10 a.m. Aug. 6.

The artwork, created by Peoria artist Preston Jackson, resembles two ends of a burned-out home, one of dozens that white rioters destroyed as they terrorized a predominantly black neighborhood known as the Badlands on Aug. 14 and 15, 1908.

The riot began when a mob, angry after being kept from lynching two black inmates in the county jail (one inmate was falsely accused of raping a white woman), turned against black residents and businesses in Springfield. After two days of rioting, at least seven people were dead, including two black men who were lynched.

The sculpture will sit on a square base on the east side of Union Square Park, close to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. In August, the city placed a temporary marker at the site. The marker complements eight others spread throughout downtown Springfield that note important riot sites.

State Journal-Register

Human foot found in Pecatonica River

FREEPORT – Stephenson County sheriff’s deputies are investigating the discovery of a human foot Sunday in the Pecatonica River near the Rock Hollow Conservation Club east of Freeport.

A body has not been discovered in the vicinity. County Sheriff David Snyders said his office is treating the case as a homicide until evidence points investigators in another direction.

The foot was found while the Rock Hollow Conservation Club was holding a Pecatonica River Cleanup Day on Sunday. As volunteers were cleaning up a logjam on the river, a tennis shoe was observed. A volunteer recovered the shoe and saw that a human foot was inside.

Snyders said his office brought in K-9 cadaver teams to search the area surrounding the logjam and beyond, but that so far no other evidence has been found.

Tissue samples from the foot are being sent to a Illinois State Police Crime Laboratory for analysis, Leamon said.

Freeport Journal-Standard

Lawsuit filed against power plant operator

PEORIA — Five Illinois health and environmental groups have joined together to file a Clean Air Act citizen lawsuit against Midwest Generation LLC.

Citizens Against Ruining the Environment, The Environmental Law and Policy Center, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago and the Sierra Club say Midwest Generation plants release illegally high amounts of particulate matter that leads to respiratory illness.

Midwest Generation operates the Powerton plant in Pekin. Midwest Generating spokesman Charley Parnell said the company has not yet seen the lawsuit, so it is reluctant to comment about it.

Peoria Journal Star

Man pleads guilty in 1983 murder of 10-year-old girl

WHEATON -- The case of kidnapping, rape and murder of then 10-year-old Naperville resident Jeanine Nicarico has been put to rest 26 years later.

Brian Dugan pleaded guilty in Wheaton on Tuesday. Dugan committed the crime against Nicarico on Feb. 25, 1983 when she stayed home sick from school.

Dugan is currently serving two life sentences for the murder of a 7-year-old girl and a 27-year-old woman. He told DuPage County prosecutors more than 20 years ago that he was responsible for Nicarico’s death. He was officially charged with the crime in Nov. 2005 after DNA tests linked him to the case.

In September, a DuPage County jury will be selected to sentence Dugan. Dugan’s attorneys plan to ask the jury to avoid the death penalty, according to news reports.

Suburban Life Publications

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